Revisiting AL East Position Rankings: Infield

At the start of the 2017 season, I attempted to compare the Orioles to their AL East opponents by ranking each team in the division at every position on the field.

Making predictions is a fool’s errand, as we all know. And making predictions about how five teams will rank at every position over the course of a season is even more foolish. You’re just going to look ridiculously wrong at the end of the year. If I were smart, I would never bring up those rankings again, and spare myself the embarrassment of being so wildly off-base.

But nobody ever accused me of being smart. So, without further ado, I’m going to revisit my April rankings and see just how much I missed the mark based on how the 2017 season turned out. I’ll also offer my final end-of-season rankings for each.

I tried to take fielding into account as part of the overall rankings. It’s a little tricky to analyze the defense of the non-Orioles, though, since we only see them in a handful of games each year. Error totals don’t really tell us much, either, and advanced defensive stats (no matter how much stock you put into them) can be a little shaky in a one-year sample.

Overall I’d say the Orioles might have had the best defensive infield in the division as a group. The outfield is a different story.

And yeah, the Davis pick looks bad now. But on paper, the crop of AL East first basemen entering the season just wasn’t impressive. Moreland, Smoak and Morrison had been career-long mediocrities, and the Yankees were trying a platoon between a flawed Carter and a rookie Bird. Davis had the best track record of any of those guys, so I ranked him first. I also thought there was a chance he’d have one of his odd-year breakouts like he did in 2013 and 2015.

Certainly not as qualified as Paul. But, Sano is a strong hitter who should only get better but he’s built like a tractor trailer. More of a hitter who needed a position. They stuck him in the outfield for awhile last season but that didn’t work out. Needs to cut down on the K’s too, he’s at a Crush like level. As long as he does that he ought to be a very good player. Strong arm but, being 6’4 240, he’s never going to have great range at 3rd.

As a 3B only, Sano wouldn’t rank very high for 2017. He only started 79 games at 3B this year. And as Jbiglen mentioned, he’s not a very good fielder. I’d probably rank him behind Machado, Donaldson, and Longoria overall for the season.

But again, that’s just for this year. Going forward, I’d love to have Sano on my team. If he can play adequate defense at 3B, his bat will more than make up the difference. The Twins are lucky to have him.